On Mon, 31 Dec 2018, Martok wrote:
1) Dynamic arrays are initialised with nil, but that is an
implementation detail
Is it, though? Global variables and instance fields are zero-filled, local
variables as if the local variable block was a record passed to Initialize()
(so, recursively zeroing managed fields). Although it is never spelled out, the
Delphi manual heavily implies this.
I would guess most if not all pascal programmers wrote code that relies on that
at some point.
And they are all wrong in doing so. It's like spelling:
It's not because 99% of the population makes a mistake that it automagically
becomes correct.
We can decide to adapt the (spelling) rules, but till that decision is made
explicit, 99% of the population is actually making a mistake.
(
Cultural note:
For native english speakers the above may be somewhat farfetched: But in Dutch
and French, spelling and grammar are not ruled by custom, but are strictly managed
by official language committees...
)
@MvC: I'll come up with some examples and add it to the Portability page, since
the different result variable initialization rules already are a bit of an
issue.
I'm curious to see them, because all 'issues' reported here can be perfectly
repeated (possibly with some modifications) in Delphi.
The non-initialization of 'Result' has bitten me more than once in Delphi.
I can't explain things better than Jonas did. I intend to rework his
arguments and introduce them in the language reference manual.
Michael.
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